Ehrler's Ice Cream is back with so many sweet memories for Louisville

Bradley Hill and Chris Kersey, who bought Erhler's Ice Cream three years ago, are preparing to open the company's first storefront in 15 years. The business, which dates back more than 150 years in the community, has been operating out of the Kentucky Fair and Expo Center and
Papa Johns Stadium for the past several years.(Photo: Maggie Menderski/Courier Journal)Buy Photo

The Louisville ice cream company’s roots start in 1867. In its early years, there was a whole dairy attached to the brand and fleet of trucks that delivered Ehrler's milk to homes. That changed as the company switched hands over the years, and the focus became ice cream.

At one point or another, Ehrler's had more than 20 ice cream shops in the area, but they closed one-by-one in the late '90s and early 2000s.

Ice cream enthusiasts in Louisville were left with Graeter’s 145 years of history and more modern brands such as The Comfy Cow. Meanwhile, Ehrler's maintained a less obvious event-based presence at the Kentucky Fair and Expo Center or Papa Johns Stadium.

Since Kersey and Hill bought the company they’ve run into plenty of customers that didn’t know Ehrler's was still around.

That’s not really surprising.

Even they didn’t realize Ehrler's and its signature orange cow logo hadn’t entirely been put out to pasture before a business broker showed it to them.

Since they bought Ehrler's in 2015, Hill and Kersey have steadily brought the name and the product out of its event-focused hibernation and pushed it back into the community.

The duo couldn’t bring back all 20 locations, but buying a food truck about a year ago gave them a way to put the ice cream itself back into the neighborhoods that lost it.

The ice cream and the nostalgia associated with it, though, have been so popular that when the opportunity came to move onto East Main Street, they scooped it up.

They’re not changing the ice cream, Kersey said, but the extra space will allow them to make banana splits, malts, cookie sandwiches and brownie sundaes in a way that they haven’t been able to at the fairgrounds or the stadium.

The shop, located at the northeast corner of Brooks Street, is about two blocks from the Yum Center and a relatively easy walk from Whiskey Row and Waterfront Park. Kersey is confident, too, that there’s enough street parking nearby that folks driving in just to come to Ehrler's can do so without too much extra trouble.

That’s important, Kersey said.

It’s a solid, central location, but it’s got pieces of many of the stores that came before it to share.

When they bought the brand, it came with a warehouse full of memorabilia. They've placed an old sign from one of the stores over their counter. There’s a whole collection of newspaper clippings and old ads. They’ve got an employee training manual that outlines how Ehrler's scooped and served ice cream in its heyday.

Eventually, they’d like to find a way to honor all their guests who once worked for the company. Whether that’s something like a guestbook or a wall decoration is still up for debate, but the idea is important to Kersey.

They didn’t just buy a business in 2015. They bought a legacy.

There are people in the community that remember getting milk delivered to their homes from Ehrler's Dairy, riding their bikes to the shops or going for a scoop with grandparents on a special occasion.

They’re sweet memories that last much longer than any treat they can put in a cone.

City Living reporter Maggie Menderski covers retail, restaurants and development in downtown and its nearby urban neighborhoods. Reach Maggie at 502-582-7137 or mmenderski@courier-journal.com. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @MaggieMenderski. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/maggiem.